So, you all might start to think I have a small obsession with reusing bags – but seriously, so many exciting things are happening in the upcycle bag world!

Last week, we were asked by a local elementary school, WG Pearson, to help them inaugurate their school garden. For the last couple of months, they have been preparing the beds and just recently put down seeds and a few plants. Conveniently, in their early stages of garden planning, they went right down the road to get some of our coffee burlap bags for – that's right – weed barriers!

The 1st through 5th graders at the school have committed to create and maintain the garden organically. There were about 100 of them present for the garden party to dedicate the garden. Those kids knew what was up, with their hands waving in the air to answer "What is a seedling?" and "What are pesticides?" and "What is soil?"

Along with Counter Culture, North Carolina Central University and the Durham Public School system supported this effort, demonstrating what can happen when partnerships are formed. There are three separate beds that include an herb garden, an heirloom section, and other vegetables. The hope is that the students have the opportunity to start early to connect with where food comes from and to be able to continue healthy lifelong practices.

We are grateful for the chance to be a part of such an inspiring project!

Our Sustainable Summer challenge starts Monday! We encourage you to put the relaxed, reflective mood afforded by the slower pace of summer to good use by making small, positive changes to your everyday habits, and living a little greener before the leaves turn brown.

Each week throughout August, via a Sustainable Summer Facebook group, we'll offer suggestions for little things we can all do to challenge climate change and preserve our natural resources. By tackling habits in the areas of Home, Work, Leisure, Transportation, and Food, we'll see firsthand how big an impact even small actions can make.

Participants will have the chance to enter raffles for great prizes (including coffee, tea, and chocolate) as a reward for green deeds done well; together, we'll end the month by celebrating sustainability with organic snacks, lively conversation, and a panel discussion about climate change and the future. (Of course, there will also be plenty of coffee.)

Every once in awhile the coffee department decides it's time to clean out the drawers where we keep green coffee samples. In each drawer, which represents a month, there are various and sundry sample baggies – small ones, large ones, thick ones, thin ones, and even the occasional cloth one! I suppose many places and many employees would quickly reject these as waste. Here at Counter Culture, however, the conversations about what to do with stray bags occur pretty much weekly.

Here are just a few things I'm looking forward to doing with those bags:

take them to the farmer's market for fruits and veggies

bring them to the co-op for my favorite trail mixes

store herbs in them for herbal summer water!

I asked a few co-workers, and here's what they would do:

use them as trash can liners for smaller bathroom trash cans

take them to the grocery store to be recycled

store stray buttons and broken jewelry for rainy day mending projects

transporting vitamins

Really, the opportunities are endless. So, it's a little quaint, maybe. But, the realness of landfill diversion and the commitment to not purchasing plastic bags that take a ridiculous amount of energy to create isn't just a drop in the bucket. Tim's words, "All right you guys, have at it!" as he set the bags on the counter, are still ringing in my ears!

Part of what we love most about summer is the time we get to relax outdoors, slow down from life's hectic pace, and reflect on the months gone by. This August we invite you to put that relaxed, reflective mood to good use by making small, positive changes to your everyday habits, and living a little greener before the leaves turn brown.

Each week throughout August, via a Sustainable Summer Facebook group, we'll offer suggestions for little things we can all do to challenge climate change and preserve our natural resources. By tackling habits in the areas of Home, Work, Leisure, Transportation, and Food, we'll see firsthand how big an impact even small actions can make.

Participants will have the chance to enter raffles for great prizes (including coffee, tea, and chocolate) as a reward for green deeds done well; together, we'll end the month by celebrating sustainability with organic snacks, lively conversation, and a panel discussion about climate change and the future. (Of course, there will also be plenty of coffee.)

Thanks to coffee producer Aida Batlle's persistent quality focus, meticulous picking and sorting, and expert processing, Finca Mauritania from Santa Ana, El Salvador, continues to be among our all-time favorites. We offer this year's harvest of Finca Mauritania with pride, respect, and gratitude. And, we hope that you enjoy Finca Mauritania as much as we do with its perfect balance of sweetness and brightness, notes of sweet pastry, and a hint of fruit over a light and creamy body. And, again, this year's harvest arrived earlier than ever before!

Buying coffee from the Productores Indígenas de la Sierra Chiapaneca (PROISCH) cooperative in 2010 allowed us to realize our long-held desire to explore the coffees from small-scale producers in Chiapas, Mexico. Farmhouse and Apollo benefited greatly that first year from PROISCH's quality and provided the perfect showcase for this coffee. Since then, we visited the co-op for the first time and worked on quality initiatives – and then visited the co-op again. Having overcome some challenges along the way, we're finally able to offer caffeinated coffee from PROISCH as a single-origin coffee called Las Milpas. We hope that you'll agree that this harvest's notes of vanilla, fig, and nougat were worth the wait.

You may recall what a big hit our carbon footprint reduction project in Honduras was at the end of 2012. Not only were we excited about the offsets, but the excitement sparked a good deal of interest within producer communities, as well. For us, this is the ideal way for good work to get done: groups recognize a timely, valuable, well-organized project and non-governmental organization (NGO) when they see one and want to be a part of it all without us saying a word!

For weeks, after Roberto Salazar—a member of the cooperative COCAFELOL, which has provided us with delicious Honduran coffees in years past – heard about the clean cookstove project that we did with the COMSA cooperative in Marcala, he was emailing us asking how he could get in on the fun. We put Salazar's cooperative in touch with the contact at COMSA and with Trees, Water, and People—the NGO responsible for training on the construction of the stoves—and let the magic happen from there.

We recently received news from Roberto Salazar that they successfully made a partnership with Trees, Water, and People to build clean cookstoves. June 18 marked their first day of construction on 85 stoves with members of their cooperative.

Thanks to all for generating the enthusiasm, making connections, and getting it done!

Kilenso Mokonisa Natural Sundried, from Aklilu Kassa's washing station in Kilenso Mokonisa in southern Ethiopia, showcases what natural sundried processed Ethiopian coffee is all about. Big flavors of blueberry and blackberry are accentuated by a juicy body.

This year, we worked with Haru and the Yirgacheffe Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia to recreate the immaculate coffee we bought last year. Better cherry selection and better processing resulted in another lot exclusively for Counter Culture that hits the hallmarks of a great Yirgacheffe coffee. Bright, crisp flavors of lime, jasmine, and sweet honey.

The Gitwe Farmers cooperative – near the eastern slope of the Aberdare mountain range in Kenya – impressed us with an amazing coffee two years ago. This tiny, few-hundred pound Karatu Peaberry lot proves that was not just a fluke. Complex tropical fruit, hibiscus, and citrus notes.

Atu Lintang grew out of a conversation about improving quality at the Jagong mill in Sumatra a few years back. Weather and mitigating circumstances prevented us from accessing it again for a few years, and we feel fortunate to have revived this project and excited to feature a coffee from Sumatra that reflects our commitment to quality there as everywhere else we work. Look for notes of bell pepper, green grape and spice.